Many Storybrooke moons ago, the sorcerer trapped the author in the book. How and why? Hopefully that will be explained all in due time on OUAT, but for right now, those questions can wait. All that matters to me at this point is that the author is trapped behind a door on a page of the storybook, and now they need to be freed... somehow.

At least Emma, Regina, and Henry have the location, all thanks to grown-up August. Maybe he'll be able to shed some more insight into this whole trapped-in-the-book situation, but he could still be guessing at it like everyone else. However, since the author has been trapped for so long, it might take a little bit more than just simple magic to get him out. Here are a few ways I think this could go.

A Spell

OUAT loves its spells. Everything seems to be fixed with some sort of spell, and a quick fix to get the author out might be this route. Someone will ring up Belle, and she'll search through a bunch of old books until she finds the right one to use to pull the author out of the page.

A Curse

Just like with spells, OUAT also loves its curses. There could be a scenario where the only way to free the author from the pages is some sort of strange curse — like, a counter curse or something along those ideas. Maybe the author can only be freed under very specific circumstances, and the situation has to be just right for his release. That could mean another enchanted curse is sweeping the county.

A Key

The author is trapped behind a door, right? Take away the fact that the door happens to be two-dimensional and an illustration, because it's still just a door. It's gonna need a key. The only way to open the door might be finding that key — wherever, and whatever, that key happens to be. The key could be a real door key, or it could be something else used to hold the door shut all this time. There might possibly be other clues in the storybook that no one has stumbled upon yet.

Old Magic

The author has been trapped in the book for a long time. The sorcerer who put him there is ridiculously powerful, and might be using a different kind of magic, that's not light or dark but simply old. In order to free the author, they might need to find someone who can control this kind of ancient magic.